that will help support the market. even though we have a lot of things coming up that are pretty significant, i still think the money needs to be active. >> peter, have a good weekend. that will close out the first hour of the "closing bell." stay tuned we have ralph coming up in the second hour. 4 p.m. on wall street. welcome back to the "closing be bell." the likelihood of u.s. strikes in syria over wall street. s&p 500 wrapping up the worst month since may of last year with some selling into the close. we're down by 37 points. >> here's how we're finishing the day out. another down day to close out the down month, dow jones down 37%. interesting some traders might want to go into the long weekend with the possibility of a strike against syria with some money in this market but we'll see what

happens. nasdaq's down 30 points. s&p down 5.5. an ugly month for stocks as the threat of military action in syria hangs over the nation and this market, bob pisani. >> what was interesting, i think we should put up president obama's key statement here today because the president and secretary of state john kerry also spoke today. president obama came out and said, we have not made a final decision on actions that will be taken. that's the key point here. he also made it clear that it will not involve -- any action taken will not involve any boots on the ground. i think that's the major headline you'll see in the newspaper tomorrow. when secretary kerry started speaking around 1:00, a speech very aggressive and very restrained at the same time, markets fluttered around, drooped going to the close and then rally just in the last few seconds. take a look at the markets intraday here. i would say concern but no panic

that was going on today. importantly, we generally had very low volume once again. light volume. volatility, the vix is up, two-month high. not dramatically elevated. the worry, protracted conflict, that we cannot get a short, surgical strike in at this point. overall, this is the last drading day of the summer. actually, it's not been a very bad summer. it's funny to look at the summer from memorial day into labor day. if you look at it that way, the s&p 500 is basically flat. slightly negative. here's the key point. january 1st to memorial day, the s&p was up 15%. ever since then it's been basically flat. that's not bad considering what we've had to deal with all summer. look at the fed taper warning that was the major issue we had to deal with. abenomics in japan. emerging market outflows, some problems with the currencies, particularly in india. there's other ones out there. the turmoil in middle east.

even grow in china, and slow growth continuing here in the second half of the year. bottom line, considering all of these issues, flat is not bad. most traders i talked to feel maybe a little more upside, perhaps 5%. but given this slow growth environment we're in, a lot of people are tempering their expectations for stocks through the end of the year. back to you. >> is flat the new a-plus, bob? flat is a victory in light of what's going on. thanks. the nasdaq faring a bit better overall. houses a dozen or so defense stocks which are in focus as military action on syria appears to inch closer and closer. let's go over to the nasdaq, seema. >> tet ra, tech among others had a volatile trading session as traders try to understand if or when u.s. will strike syria. in terms of the big movers this month, staples, cisco are the

biggest losers. cisco moved to disappointing earnings and restructuring announcement. winners, dell, facebook, netflix up a whopping 16%. apple gaining about 7%, thanks to better than expected earnings and rising anticipation of possibly a new iphone being unveiled on september 10th. back over to you. >> thank you. with the worst month of the year in the rearview mirror, where do we go from here? joining us is stephanie, ralph joining us from altara, joe bell. stephanie, once again, you first. next week, what do we see? >> well, next week everyone's going to be waiting for the nonfarm payroll numbers. as we talked about, some of the trends in the initial claims over the last several weeks have been pretty encouraging. we get the adp number before that, too. we'll get some jobs information.

we're also going to get some manufacturing data in the pmis as well. not only here but globally. i think that's going to be very important. because one of the parts of the economy that started to heel and started to see better results has been manufacturing. we have to see if that's going to continue. we get a lot of data points from china, europe data points have gotten better. those are the areas we've been putting money to work. again, we have some cash on hand to be buying some of the cyclicals and some defense that have gotten out of favor. that's our strategy. >> bill, are you there? >> ralph, last timing you were with us last week, you said you wouldn't be surprised to see the dow pull back into the 12,000 range later this year. a lot of gasps went out on that one. >> i just want to say something, bill, that my concern didn't start yesterday. it didn't start last week.

my concern started about three or four months ago. tell my good friend peter to step back and look at weekly bar charts. not minute by minute or daily. look at weekly. you see a lot of blue chip stocks are very, very heavy, bill. the implications are that multinational companies are saying something to us. when i combine that observation with the emerging markets, it is not a very pretty picture. so, i would take advantage of any rally to lighten up. >> again, that move would be a correction, a pretty healthy one, by the way, in the midst of what you still see as a longer term bull market? >> oh, yes. i am a secular bull, which means i'm looking out four, five, ten years or more. but even secular bulls, bill, have bear markets. this could be a pretty difficult period. >> lance, do you think we can buck history, throw history to the wind and we can actually

have a decent month for stocks in september? >> well, i don't know about that. one thing is, i do agree with ralph about one point. have you to look at weekly charts. we have a weekly sell signal in the short term which suggests -- history suggests this could lead to lower prices over the next month to month and a half. >> how much lower? >> i think it is important -- you could probably see this market on the s&p 500 test closer to 1500. so, you know, i think it's reasonable to take profits on rallies. you're below resistance right now, which is going to be important coming -- you know, coming up over the next few weeks. plus economically speaking we have the debt ceiling debate coming up. rising interest rates which slows main stream -- the main stream economy. and then, of course, looking fundamentally, earnings are deteriorating and getting weaker here. there's a lot of the drivers you've had earlier this year are kind of dissipating at the moment. stocks are overvalued and extended. a deeper correction would

provide a much better buying opportunity than trying to buy here. >> you think with the 5% move we've seen in the dow so far to the down side, that's it. you're looking to renew highs by the end of the year, is that it? >> we definitely do. large caps have definitely deteriorated. the thing we also need to pay attention to is small cap sector. that has held up quite well. when you look at outperformance versus dow of the past two months, we look at magnitude. we did a study recently looking back to 2000. this kind of outperformance has only happened about 14 times. one of the notable times is back in april 2009 right after the march 2009 bottom. the most interesting part when we looked out going three months, dow actually outperforms. so it hammers home small caps perhaps leading now. maybe we'll see a little large cap catching up in september. so many people calling for poor performance in september. remind me back in may when so many people were saying sell in

may, go away and we had that surprise may rally, i think we could be in store for something like that in september as well. >> what about that, ralph? >> no, sorry. i totally disagree. you cannot turn your back on large cap stocks. ultimately they dictate. and, yes, you do have a period of time here where small caps and midcaps are doing well. honestly, if ibm and mcdonald's and google all start breaking down, they will follow through on the downside. where i do agree is that in any kind of a pullback, that we're all talking about, it's the sector in groups that get down the least. i would suspect small and midcap will not get as badly damaged as large cap. therefore, you want to be in small to midcap later on. but near term, don't fight papa. >> let me ask you, stephanie, as well, something lance brought up that technically speaking we could test to the downside, 1500

on the s&p and looking over extended and overvalue. what do you think about that comment? >> as i said earlier, i think down 5% from the peak. we're starting to discount some of this stuff. certainly not syria because we don't know how that's going to play out. but the fed tapering is probably starting to be baked in the cake in terms of them doing something. >> you don't think a nervous market on the back of potential strike on syria would make the fed rethink a september taper? >> they might. i think they're looking at inflation and jobs. if jobs come in better than expected next week, i think they're going to do something. but they'll do something small. it doesn't necessarily mean they're taking it all away at once. it's still going to be accommodative. to me, the tell is going to be how financials trade. those have been the leaders. for the last month they have been one of the lagging sectors. can they regain leadership? if that's the case, i think the market can regain leadership. that's not one of the keys i'm keeping an eye out for. >> keep an eye on the financials. stephanie and the rest of the crew, thank you for joining us today.

>> august was ugly for stocks but what will september bring? we'll talk to a guest who says september could turn out to be the month to remember but for the wrong reasons. 4 sure git gets more complicated with syria looming. >> plus president obama giving more hints on what he may do about syria. that was a short time ago. we go to the pentagon for the latest. plus a congressman who has been in the white house briefings. he'll join us with his thoughts as well. with a familiar keyboa. to update our status without opening an app. to have all our messages in one place. to browse... and share... faster than ever. ♪ it's time to do everything better than before. the new blackberry q10. it's time. the new blackberry q10. (announcer) scottrade knows our and invest their own way.

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the president and his secretary of state john kerry vowing to hold syria accountable for using chemical weapons. john harwood with what may happen next. >> reporter: we've seen me men item building all day for a u.s. response not just by statements from john kerry but also president obama himself a short time ago. he said reacting to syria's use of chemical weapons was not just in the use of the 1400 syrians killed and others threatened by these weapons, not just in the interest of the united states, but in the interest of the entire world. >> the world has an obligation to make sure we maintain the

norm use the against of chemical weapons. now, i have not made a final decision about various actions that might be taken to help enforce that norm. but as i've already said, i have had my military and our team look at a wide range of options. >> reporter: the president was clearing addressing reservations in public opinion when he talked about an intervention would not be. said no boots on ground, narrow and limited in impact. we saw from our nbc news poll this morning, only 4 2% of the american people said they supported a strike against syria in response to chemical weapons use. although when you say it's missiles coming from navy ships, the number goes up to 50%. on the other hand, president's facing the kind of criticism that we just got from john mccain and lindsey graham, two leading republican voices on foreign policy, they said from what they can tell, the response by the administration that

they're contemplating would be too weak, mandy. >> john harwood, thank you very much for that. >> so what happens next? >> joining us is john busse, covering this area and ed hussein with council on foreign relations. ed, what do you think is the most likely situation -- we've been told in the sales pitch, limited, no boots on the ground. these are things they're just hoping for as opposed to knowing whether or not there's going toen an actual reality. what do you think is the most effective way to get this done without having anything protracted? >> from what's been said so far, some kind of missile strikes, cruise missiles, some aerial blitzing of some sort, i'm no military expert so i can't comment on the details of how an operation will play out. i think some criticism that's come out against secretary kerry's statements so far and the indecision from the

president himself is that no military strategy has been played out. allies in israel and turkey have a similar complaint that no clear military strategy has been placed out by the administration. but for understandable reasons, perhaps, leaks that have come out of the white house have arguably strengthened the enemy sense of preparedness, knowing that the kind of targets that are being identified. so, for the obvious reasons, perhaps, no military strategy has been put in in place other than the fact that the president is clear he wants to boots on the ground. the irony is you won't stop the civil war inside syria without boots on the ground. whether it's american boots or an international -- >> is that our objective, to stop the civil war rather than just make a statement that chemical weaponry is not tolerated by the world community? >> yes, well, as the president correctly identified f that was a norm expected by the world community, what's stopping the so-called world community from reacting? there is no world community. it's a myth in our head.

it's the united states and some allies to enforce what we consider to be the norm. >> what about the u.s. comment, john, and the polls overnight that show there's 80% want to make sure the president goes to congress before he does anything, and half of them don't want to see any kind of military action at all. do you think that changes some strategy the administration might have had in mind to begin with? >> no question about that. this is a public responding to a war at ten years now. it does not want to get anywhere close to another engagement of the sort we saw in iraq or that we still see in afghanistan. we still haven't pulled out of afghanistan. i mean, there's a lot of questions here. the president is trying to send a signal, trying to send a signal to an increasingly fractured regime there. as bill spindle point out earlier today, the regime is acting like its own militia.

it's moving around. it's not a seating parliament you could bomb. this will be a very difficult effort to send an effective enough signal to assad. second thing is that the killing of civilians is not going to stop. it might stop possibly through the use of chemical weapons but conventional weapons will still be used. you're still going to see horrible footage like you have seen over the last several days. it will just be kids killed by rockets. >> how do you think assad will take that so-called message, though? do you think he's going to say, you know what, you're right, okay, sorry, should do it again, or do you think it's going to get nasty? >> i don't think he's so concerned with a message from the united states but survival of himself and his family. if enough of his capability is eroded by the strike that he says to himself, it's not worth it, doing this again because i was so badly damaged, then perhaps he listens.

otherwise, he's -- >> what if he does it again, though? then what? then the u.s. is involved in a protracted strike, counterstrike, strike, counterstrike with a dictator in the middle east. >> the president heads to russia on tuesday for the g-20 meeting. what do you think he'll hear from other heads of stated regarding this situation? >> we'll hear, to be completely blunt, some level off hypocrisy. i think from some governments in private. in public we'll hear encouragement. in public they'll say, no, no, no, the u.s. should not be attacking another arab, islam country. arab dictators have been using this. saddam hussein used it against kurds. this dictator has used it. i understand the reason to strike but my concern is that we

don't deliver strong enough message and then he continues to use those weapons and the u.s. is involved in a protracted war, having set the precedent of attacking a dictator every time he uses these horrendous weapons. >> much more ahead on the situation in syria and what the economic impact will be. when we come back, while many investors are saying good riddance to the month of august, others warn the pain has just begun. >> two stock pros duke it out which way the stocks go next month. in today's markets, a lot can happen in a second. with fidelity's guaranteed one-second trade execution, we route your order to up to 75 market centers to look for the best possible price -- maybe even better than you expected. it's all part of our goal to execute your trade in one second. i'm derrick chan of fidelity investments. our one-second trade execution is one more innovative reason serious investors are choosing fidelity. now get 200 free trades

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a flood of red income on wall street. round it up for us. august's best and worst sectors. >> now that we've closed out the month, let's check the score card how we did for the month of august. the broader s&p 500 finished down 3% for the month. all ten sectors finished lower. utility stocks the worst performers, down by 5 .5 % in that period. high dividend payers were not helped with a rise in interest rate which saps demand for these type of stocks. the better performers on a relative basis came in technology. down about 1% for the month. the sector my have ekeed out a gain had it not been declines in first solar, hp and microdevice

systems. the relative best performing sector was materials because they were only down fractionally, 0.2%. they were helped by cliff, free port, both up 7%. when it comes to the stock market, it was down. it was down across the bothered for those big cap s&p 500 stocks, guys. >> red was the color to wear clearly. thank you very much. when the markets open back up on tuesday, it's going to be september. according to history, that's not a good time of the year for the equity markets, bill. >> since 1950 the dow has lost ground in september 60% of the time. harry thinks it will be another bad september but gina sanchez thinks this time we could buck the historical trend. harry, welcome back. we're all sitting down. you're a bear for september? >> you know, i am. i've been looking at past interviews we've had for a correction of about 10%, which will probably go into september, early october with the debt debate and all these other

things, syria and the fed meeting in mid-september. and then a topping pattern where we go to a new high, about 16,000 on the dow. think, 14,000 down. up to 16,000. and then a major topping pattern, much like in the mid to late '60s and '70s where each high, 200, 2007, 2013 or '14, takes new highs and crashes in between. i call this a dow mega phone pattern. it's a very powerful pattern and suggests that after going to new highs, that in the few years to follow, the markets could fall as to as low as 6,000. this is another serious crash i'm looking at but a minor correction in september and then a rally. probably into december or january. >> gina, play the other side. in what way do you feel harry is wrong? >> well, i think harry has a lot of good points. some of the weakness we've seen recently has been on the back of syria. but the weakness, you know,

going into the talk around tapering, really that has to do with the market trying to decide whether or not the fed is right or wrong to taper. if they taper and it turns out to be a strong economy, that's actually quite good for the markets. but if they taper and, in fact, it's not as strong as they think they are -- that it is, then that's going to be negative for the markets. but in september i think that the action in syria is going to be very, very limited. and as a result, the markets are going to probably refocus back on other macro issues besides syria. that could cause a small rally in the markets because -- >> fundamentally -- sorry. finish your thought. >> no, go ahead. where were you going with that? >> this is for harry. fundamentally what would cause the topping action and major move down that you see for the stock market down the road? i mean, the economy still is recovering at this point. and tapering would sort of

validate that. >> it's recovering. $2 trillion a year just to grow at 2%. demographics peaked in 2007. they're getting worse and worse in more countries of the world. europe falls off this demographic cliff starting next year. they haven't even hit this demographic down draft yet. it's going to keep happening in more countries around the world. fundamentals are terrible. had the biggest debt bubble. can't compare it to the one in the roaring '20s. the economy wants to slow, wants to deleverage so we can get efficient, eliminate a lot of excess and grow. the fed's not letting it happen. at some point like the subprime crisis in 2008, china's real estate blows up, southern europe, spain's bubble collapses and this whole unstimulated

system unwinds. >> a lot of doomsday scenarios there. gina, tell us it's not that bad. >> i would agree that the fed is obviously helping and making a difference in an economy that would otherwise be weaker. i agree with that. don't think it's quite as doomsdayish as you're describing. i would say that if the fed were to remove qe from the system too early and cause a bond market rout, which could take us to 3%, 3.5% in term of ten-year yields, that could be extremely negative for the market. it's one of the reasons i've been saying over and over again, i highly doubt the fed would be able to taper in september, even a mild taper. they may start that and the market will react by saying, i think this is right or wrong. i think everyone feels this recovery is a weak recovery. and that if you start to take away the feeding trough too soon, that we may actually find that out. and the fed won't be able to do anything about it at that point, because they won't be able to

restart a new program. that's why they have to be very careful. >> thank you both, folks. have a good weekend. >> well, syria is, of course, at the center of the global station today. >> from london to washington to damascus, concerns over the civil conflict continue to rage in syria. when we come back, ranking member of house committee on foreign affairs, eliot engels, on why he supports military action. d be fine if bob were a vampire. but he's not. ♪ he's an architect with two kids and a mortgage. luckily, he found someone who gave him a fresh perspective on his portfolio. and with some planning and effort, hopefully bob can retire at a more appropriate age. it's not rocket science. it's just common sense. from td ameritrade.

i have not made a final decision about various actions that might be taken to help enforce. but as i've already said, i have had my military and our team look at a wide range of options. >> at the president a couple hours ago you saw it on tape on cnbc a couple hours ago on where the president stands on launch of a military strike on syria. back to the middle east, we go to ayman. >> reporter: certainly the presentation made by secretary of state john kerry regarding the intelligence that the u.s. has, has received mixed reactions from across the region here. now, keep in mind, some

countries have been closely allied to the u.s. here in lebanon, a country very familiar with the type of violence that has happened in syria because it has come across the border, they are worried about it and said any strike on syria would lead to destabilizing lebanon and the region. on the other hand, turkey has gone further saying they want any military action against syria to actually topple the regime of president bashar al assad. meanwhile countries like jordan, more concern with the humanitarian crisis that's putting their country on pressure. they said their territory won't be used for any attacks on syria. mixed reaction and also those standing with syrian regime, including iran and hezbollah. those vowing to defend the syrian government is an indication that, perhaps, we could see a widening of this conflict. nobody knows what's going to happen on the day after, so to

speak. the syrian government has remained defiant. people have gone out to the streets in small numbers to protest in solidarity. but we're also seeing daily violence in between clashes between the rebel opposition and syrian government. >> for reaction to the events surrounding syria, let's talk to ranking member of the house committee on foreign affairs. >> joining us is new york democrat congressman eliot engel. always good to see you. thank you for joining us again. >> thank you. >> what is our objective at this point? there is a disagreement publicly about what we're trying to achieve at this point. do you -- are you sending a message to assad and, if so, how do you do that? >> i think it's clear that since president obama will make the final decision, that he's interested in sending a message. i don't think the president wants a prolonged battle. he certainly has ruled out boots on the ground.

i think americans are weary of two wars, and so am i and so is he. >> do you think -- >> i think, though -- >> i'm sorry. go ahead. >> i think, though, there has to be a reaction to the horrific use of gas to murder his own people. those pictures of those children foaming at the mouth and dying is something that will remain with me for the rest of my life. and i just think we have to in the 21st century say that this kind of warfare on the civilian population will not stand because if we don't do anything, it will encourage every despot, every terrorist group across the world to use gas, use weapons of mass destruction, and pay no price. so i think the president is grappling with what the response should be. and i think he will respond in kind. i think it will come pretty

soon. and we'll find out after he does it. i just do not think this can go unpunished. there may be a problem for action, but there's also a problem of inaction. i don't think we can afford to not act. >> certainly certain quarters in the american public would not be supportive of a strike. do you fink this it came down to a vote in congress, they would support a strike as well? >> i don't think there will be an immediate vote in congress. i think the war powers act allows president to do military inclusion with robust consultation with congress but he has 60 days before the congress actually has to vote. if you look at past american history, president reagan did it in grenada, president bush in panama, and president clinton in kosovo and president obama in libya, these are all incursions and there are more where first

the incursion happened and then congress voted. in some of these things congress didn't even vote. i think the president is well within his rights. i understand the frustrations of some people, but i do think -- i agree with the president. i think he's handling it well. i think he's doing the right thing. and i support what he's doing. >> but what about -- i mean, the president, secretary of state kerry, have you said this as well, is that the world community cannot allow this to continue, but yet we don't hear from the rest of the world community. in fact, we had that vote in parliament last night where they voted down allowing british troops to participate. is there a world community that is as enraged about this as we seem to be? >> well, yes and no. obviously, some are, some are not. we're the united states of america and we have a great ideals and we certainly don't support the war crimes, where you gas men, women and children, your own population.

assad has done this. it's clear that it was the assad regime who did this. and it's just a matter of do you want to turn your head and look the other way and pretend it didn't happen or -- >> no question, but what do you make about the silence around the rest of the globe? >> i think there's silence in some quarters and not silence in other quarters. i think if the president decides he's going to strike, there will be a number of countries which will be supporting us and will be visibly supporting us. there are some people who feel everything is acceptable and it doesn't matter how barbaric a leader acts against his people. i disagree. >> what do you think is the worst case scenario here? >> well, i think there are lots of bad choices in syria. i don't think there's one good choice in syria, but i think of all the bad choices, the worst choice would be to do nothing because then it would show every despot around the world can continue to act this way, every terrorist organization to continue to act this way. as the president says, we have

to stand for something. if we're not going to be disgusted at the gassing of children by one's own government, then i just don't know what we stand for. and i think the -- it's time that the president acts, i think he will act, and i support him. these are difficult decisions. but if you do nothing, you encourage this kind of behavior all over the world. i think that's far, far worse. >> congressman engel, thank you for joining us. they go hand in hand with the 1.1 million students who graduated from college last year know that very well. but it doesn't have to be that way. >> we'll come back, talk to two undergrads along with the author of "college unbound" a new book that looks to fix the college system at the conclusion of our week-long series "school days: the changing face of college." [ kitt ] you know what's impressive?

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to have all our messages in one place. to browse... and share... faster than ever. ♪ it's time to do everything better than before. the new blackberry q10. it's time. today we close out our week-long series "school daze: the changing face of college" with such as landing a job after graduation and how to pay for college. in our finale we pose the question, what can be done to make college worth while? >> let's talk to students themselves. education costs continue to skyrocket while the job market remains pretty bleak right now, so what can be done to change things? we talk to a senior a iona

college, a junior at nyu, and joining the conversation is jeff from the chronicle of higher education. kelsey, i'll start with you. my daughter just graduated college. she came out and said, i don't know that it was worth the high price we have to pay for education right now. what do you say? >> i think it's entirely worth it. i know i'm going to leave college in debt and i'm okay with that. i'm making the most of my college experience right now. i don't think just because it's college, it doesn't matter. >> you're convinced that it's worth the risk, the amount of money you pay, that you'll be able to land a career that will pay that debt and let you live your life as well? >> yes. >> what about you, you're a college senior, so you're obviously getting ready to graduate and into the workforce. do you feel it's been worth it? >> i feel it has been worth it however i do not agree with the cost that iona college has and all the other colleges out there. >> therefore, does the cost make it not worth it? >> no, the cost is not worth it,

especially -- especially with rising costs. we talk about how education is really, really important. it seems the tuition cost of college has been going up. >> how much are you going to be graduating with in student debt? >> a little over $70,000. >> and you hope to be a journalist? >> yes, i hope to be. >> and so does kelsey, by the way, television journalist. you guys, good luck with that. jeff, what can we do -- i mean, it can't go up forever. what is going to happen down the road for these kids that are taking on so much debt that just graduated from college? >> eventually you'll see families push back. you're already seeing that. 40% of average family income now goes to pay tuition at public and private colleges in the united states. so, we saw president obama come out with a bunch of proposals last week on his bus tour in new york and pennsylvania. and i think the biggest piece of this is better consumer information. going to college is worth it but

not going to every college and majoring in anything in any of these colleges is not necessarily worth it for all families and all students. >> kelsey, obviously nyu an excellent program in broadcast journalism, but did you think of going somewhere elsewhere it might be cheaper, you could get a credential, bachelor of arts degree there cheaper and still find a way to get into the business? >> that was an option. obviously, there are great schools out there that apply to journalism, but i came to nyu knowing i would pay that money because this is the field i want to get into. there are jobs everywhere in new york for students. and i think there's no better place to break into the industry than new york. and new york university just applied to me. >> was it ever put to you, ever occur to you, that another option could be just get into the workforce and work your way up or these days is it the thought amongst your pierce you

have to have the college degree? even if you come out with fewer schools had you been working on the floor of a news room, doing every single job and working your way up that way? >> i believe so because when it comes to searching for jobs, you need a lot of experience. just looking for internships, you just need experience. i feel like a lot of that experience comes from that college degree. a lot of people feel they need to go out there, no matter the cost, and get that college degree. and a lot of students find themselves in rather high debt. >> absolutely. give us solutions, jeff. we need solutions. >> please. >> well, i think part of it is that we need to come up with a different financing system. so that students are actually paying back their loans as a percentage of their income after graduation. when you think about it, no matter where you go to school and no matter what you major in, everybody has to pay back the same exact amount. that's one solution. secondly, you heard kelsey talk about going to nyu, i think students get emotionally attached to institutions before they decide how much it's going to cost them.

i think we need to move up -- the discussion of financing of colleges much earlier into high school. we don't look at houses we can't afford. we don't look at cars we can't ford. we shouldn't look at colleges we can't afford. >> what do you say, kelsey? >> i'm going to have to respectfully disagree. i love the city, i love my program, i love my major, and the nyu name is great, but -- >> but it comes at a cost. >> it does. like i said, i'm going to graduate in debt and i'm fully aware of that. i had to pay my tuition the other day so i know the price tag that goes with my school. it's worth it to me. i'm having the time of my life and i'm given opportunities i never would have had at home, so i'm happy. >> very good. >> you happy, too? >> i am happy. i -- unfortunately, it's hard to see other students struggling, especially with college debt. it's a subject that is stalked about around college all the time. student loans have to be paid off. for many it's an embarrassing

subject. >> absolutely. >> best of luck to both of you. i hope you can pay off that debt as quickly as possible. jeff, thanks to you for trying to find solutions. >> great series this week. >> absolutely. more on syria ahead. we'll go live to london where the decision not to take part in any action against syria threw a real monkey wrench into the white house's plans. >> plus, general electric is planning to unplug from consumer lending at ge capital. investors appeared to like that. we have details and the g etrade you cannot afford to miss coming up next. playing this and tradin. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 and the better i am at them, the more i enjoy them. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 so i'm always looking to take them up a notch or two. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 and schwab really helps me step up my trading. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 they've now put their most powerful platform, tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 streetsmart edge, in the cloud. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 so i can use it on the web, where i trade from tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 most of the time. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 which means i get schwab's most advanced tools tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 on whatever computer i'm on. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 it's really taken my trading to the next level. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550

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. >> shying away from the consumer, general electric is considering shieg away from its arms. let's ask the managing member of the volatility group. brian, stock was up on an otherwise down day today? >> a great day for ge. i think the deal they're talking about makes a lot of sense on all kind of fronts here. if you look at ge, itself, they are basically saying they need to delend their risk. what they basically want to do. this has been since 2008 is become a lending partnership with their supply chain. by spinning this off, now

they've leveraged down their risk here as ge's capital, itself. the spinout arm can go out and do what it wants here. it's a strong part of ge here. they can lend like they want to. maybe they get a value like a visa or a mastercard level. would be a nice valuation there. then they take the money here at ge. put it back into the stock, buying back shares. that's been the great trade this year. if you look at share buy back etf, it's one to look at. >> so quickly, are you buying the stock here? >> i think the $23 level or lower, you average in the great stock there. >> thank you, much. we'll see you in a little bit. for more action, you can tune into options action at 5:30 coming up after ""fast money."" . america alone? maybe. >> we'll go live to london for the latest on why the brits got cold feet and what it means to

the timing and scope coming up after this.

>> well, the british parliament voted against u.s. intervention

in syria. our scott cohn is live with spectators if there is military action in syria. >> bill, this was not the way it was supposed to go. we understand the president and prime minister david cameron have spoken about yesterday's vote in parliament. the conversation said to be friendly. this was clearly a bump in the road to an international coalition, more than that probably for david cameron, who had called them back early, initially for a blanket authorization for military action. when it became clear, he tried for a resolution. but that failed as well. . >> it is very clear tonight that the world has not passed emotion, it is clear to me that the british parliament reflecting the views of the british people does not want to see british military action. i get that and the government will act accordingly. >> so, what is next? well, we know the white house has said the u.s. will act in its own interest.

the british weren't going to play much of a role in a strike anyway, cameron says they will be engaged, just not militarily. there is a great deal of soul searching, concerns of what they commonly refer to simply is the special relationship, the bond between the u.s. and britain. they are looking back to when britain threw in the towel for the last time a prime minister here was shut down this badly. so a lot of questions here, be you the britains will remain on the side lines if the u.s. attacks syria. >> scott, as you probably know here in the u.s. overnight, we had those poll ratings that showed americans here for the most part either wanted the president to go to congress with some sort of a resolution or they didn't want military action. i think they're war wary just as much as the brits are at this point, don't you? >> yeah, it seems as though iraq is really, this country is still haunted by what happened in iraq. there was a big concern. a lot of people heard comments about this is a true democracy.

they did vote on it here in the u.s. it doesn't appear that's going to happen. >> scott cohn joining us in london. before we go, the day on wroet, a slight down day, ending a month, traders probably wanted to get rid of, right, andy? >> absolutely. i think the dow and the s&p suffered over august, their worst month. the nasdaq did a little better than that. had they performed better today, it might have squeaked into the black for the month. clearly, that was not the case. >> microsoft, the best performer for the dow this month, for obvious reasons. a lot of news going on with steve ballmer announcing his resignation going out. oil a strong month for the price, with all that is going on in syria. we see it down today about 1% at $107.69. a strong month overall. the yield on the ten year with anticipation for the tapering situation, we saw that moving higher and it's up to $2.79% on

that ten year note. thank you for joining, mandy, always good to have you with us on a friday. >> nothing at all. everyone has a safe and happy weekend. u.s. the it for us here on "the closing bell." thank you for watching. ""fast money"" starts right now. so keep it on cnbc. . >> the nasdaq markets, i'm mellissa lee. our guests are here. let's get straight to the beg story that is the escalating crisis in syria. president obama said he has not made a decision of chemical weapons. for the latest, let's get to john harwood in washington. >> mellissa. you are right, we saw an acceleration of the move towards a strike from two different public statements today. first was secretary of state